Chicken Mites

[tortoise]

We have second year of chicken mites. They affecting our barn flock the worst, but as we clean out the barn, now they're in the barn cleaner / manure pile and our free range birds will get them (if they haven't already).

The source of the mites is wild birds. We have managed to get most of the pigeon population out of our barn, but no luck on the swallows.

The mites died off sufficiently in winter and chickens regrew their feather. I put DE in nest boxes and in the litter. Problem with medications is there is no known withdrawal time, in other words, the eggs and meat would never be safe for consumption.

What can I do?

 

[waretrop]

Omgosh!!! My chickens got 120 pounds of sand today...do the ever love it...

 

[waretrop]

I have a hard plastic kiddie swimming pool that I keep sand and lime in. The chickens take dust baths in it and that keeps the lice away. I also use lime in the outside grazing area, in the chicken coop floor and in all the next boxes. I toss it in all the nooks and crannies around the coop. You can make a lime wash by adding water and paint the coop. I use it every week in all these areas, year round. I never have a problem with buggers...Spring and Fall I use diatom powder in the sandbox and next boxes, for just one week. So all that I do also keeps the smells down.

 

[MoonShadows]

The DE didn't take care of the chicken mites?
Get some wormwood (perennial herb...also called mugwort). Hang some in your coop and put some in the nesting boxes. It is a mite repellent. You can also spray the chickens with a garlic juice mixture. It's supposed to have a 100% kill rate in 24 hours.

I also found an article with some other natural mite treatments:
http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/02/mites-how-to-prevent-them-and-treat.html

 

[Beekissed]

I know @Beekissed used to talk about dusting them with wood ashes?

The wood ashes didn't work. I finally got rid of them altogether and they never returned by simply dusting with pyrethrin dust, the organic version of permethrin. Each year before winter and after winter, I dust the roosts with the same thing and place a little in the bottom of the nest boxes, under the hay, and that seems to keep things good.

The pyrethrins occur in the seed cases of the perennial plant pyrethrum (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium), which has long been grown commercially to supply the insecticide. Pyrethrins have been used as an insecticide for thousands of years. It is believed that the Chinese crushed chrysanthemum plants and used the powder as an insecticide as early as 1000 BC. It was widely known that the Chou Dynasty in China widely used pyrethrin for its insecticide properties.[8] Pyrethrins were identified as the potent chemical in the Chrysanthemum plants responsible for the insecticidal properties in the crushed flowers around 1800 in Asia. In the Napoleonic Wars, French soldiers used the flowers to keep away fleas and body lice.[8]

When I get new chickens to the place, they all get a good dusting and a coat of castor oil to their scales before they are integrated with the flock. No mites of any kind in the flock since taking these measures.

Sulfur dust is a great preventative to place in dusting spots too and can also be used topically for mites, though not quite as deadly to the mites as the pyrethrin dust.

DE and wood ashes are not known for being all that effective, particularly if you already have a mite situation on hand.

 

[tortoise]

I caught a chicken today! In daylight. She is a bit lame and badly pecked. I put her in a cage, we'll see if she survives. BUT I CAUGHT A CHICKEN!

I also caught a wild songbird today. It was on my deck and not flying right. I picked it up and put it in a tree. It wasn't in the area later.

 

[Hinotori]

First, I have a sort of dirt floor in the big coop. The previous property owner had put down a holey carpet upside down and built an awning over it. We said screw it since we couldnt get it up easy and walled it and put large fowl birds there anyway.

I've got the perfect balance going on in that coop's deep litter. It may dry out a bit too much in summer, but 10 months of the year is (amazingly) perfect even with the amount of rain we get. Worms and other things live in the lower levels as I come across them if I'm scooping some out for the garden. Top few inches are dry and fluffy and it becomes crumbly soil under. Poop is broken down within a few days and it never smells in there. The first year was kind of bad, even with me putting down a lot of pine pellets then shavings. Stalldry was my friend that year. Then spring and summer got so busy and I really meant to clean it all out but never got to it. I felt like a bad chicken mom that winter until I realized it was working properly finally and stayed dry and smell free. I toss about a bag of pine shavings on the floor every year now after I scoop out enough garden litter. It stays at about a foot deep altogether.

I took Mom 2 feed sacks of litter last fall for her pots with the warning that it is almost pure poop. When she went to use it she kept asking why doesn't this smell like poop. It smells like dirt. Then she complained about all the feathers since the girls were molting when I scooped. "I can't have feathers in the pots. Your little nieces will try and pick them out." So Mom sorted out the worst of the feathers. The two bags I took her last month she was fully happy with. One of my brothers asked how she was getting such good looking big plants. She told him it was a secret.

 

[Mini Horses]

I go to a Tastycake outlet near me and can buy the outdateds for about 5 cents a loaf (often NOT outdated). My chickens and goats LOVE the breads. In order to not fall all over them, I open a loaf and sling handfuls of slices away from me. Raisin bread is a real favorite. They race to it. And I have a source for close dated cases of veggies, free. Generally get a pick-up load every week to 10 days of each.

I fed my pigs out on this type of stuff, fresh mowed grass & some purchased pig feed. Sure helps with the feed bills!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's great! Wish I could find a sweet deal like that!

 

[tortoise]

Thread update. I have not gotten around to limewashing in the barn yet, although I have DH's approval to try. DH solved the pigeon problem in our barn and we didn't have a lot of swallow activitythis summer either compared to previous years. I haven't gotten any mites on me while cleaning in the barn - since June, apparently. I still use DE in nest boxes. Hens look good. Now that I've remembered this thread, I'll have to inspect a couple.